2005 was “The Year of the iPod”, 2006 to be “The Year of the Mac”

Most of the Apple announcements made last year were focused around the hot item of the year, the iPod. Steve introduced the first flash-based iPod at Macworld 2005, the Shuffle, and later introduced the Nano and the video-capable iPod. So, if 2005 was “The Year of the iPod”, what will 2006 be? The Year of the Mac.

Steve Jobs announced only a couple months back that they would make a drastic change from IBM PowerPC processors to Intel’s chips. While the Mac Mini was introduced in 2005, I have a feeling that it is going to be a major focus for Apple in 2006. With Intel Inside, the Mac Mini can become a powerful media-center and digital hub. I am sure Apple has some exciting announcements to come, and those are definitely going to help expand Apple’s market share, as this is a big company with a lot of employees, so the use of a compensation plan is important for them.

An article by Stowe Boyd, titled “The Year of the Mac“, makes clear points that 2006 will become the year of the Mac. Stowe makes that point that businesses will slowly move away from Microsoft with Web 2.0. And don’t forget how about Internet Explorer, I predict that sites are going to start not supporting Internet Explorer, and that will really hurt Microsoft.

His second point is that Apple’s fight for the living room media-center is strong, and will become a huge success in 2006 as Apple puts Front Row in more Macs and DVR capability, such as the Mac Mini. And don’t forget how much the Intel processors will help, better battery, faster speeds, and better and slimmer designs.

So, let’s hope that this prediction comes true, and that 2006 will become “The Year of the Mac”.